Travis Mirniyowan, 33, is a traditional Aborigine who hunts turtles with a harpoon in the Gulf of Carpentaria off the coast of the Northern Territory. But he is also looking for change.

He says he voted for the Country Liberal Party candidate Larisa Lee in the NT election last weekend because she promised to help people get work.

“People can try to find a job on a station or somewhere. She will try to make that happen. If everyone votes Liberal, she says everybody gets a chance to get money," says Mirniyowan, who lives in the remote community of Numbulwar, about 10 hours’ drive south-east of Darwin.

Indigenous voters such as Mirniyowan handed the CLP government, breaking three decades in which the ALP has had a lock on the Aboriginal vote.

The CLP is poised to take at least three and up to five of the seven NT seats with large indigenous populations, giving them 15 seats in the 25-seat NT legislature.

A similar trend at the federal election could change the balance in the safe Labor NT seat of Lingiari, where at least 42 per cent of the population is indigenous.

Some say Labor has lost its close ties to Aboriginal voters in remote communities by supporting the indigenous policy launched by
John Howard
’s “emergency intervention".

“A lot of Aboriginal people are very unhappy about the intervention and are very concerned about Labor staying with the kind of major elements of that," former NT chief minister
Clare Martin
says.

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Howard sent in troops on the eve of the 2007 election to take over previously self-governing indigenous communities, vowing to stop an epidemic of child abuse and incest. When Labor won power it withdrew the troops but has persisted with the tough “mutual obligation" policies pioneered by Howard.

A share of the dole is now paid to indigenous people in remote communities through a “basics card" which can be used only to buy food and essentials, rather than grog.

Parents who don’t send their children to school can be fined. Cops have been stationed permanently in all major communities which used to be self-administering.

Lee, the new CLP member for Arnhem, argues that the key issue which swung the election was not the federal intervention but the NT ALP government’s decision to create “super shires", supposedly to deliver services more efficiently.

Numbulwar’s self-governing community was merged with 10 others into a super shire called Roper Gulf Shire, which is almost as big as the United Kingdom. It has a shop front in Numbulwar but headquarters is in Katherine, six hours’ drive away.

“Communities felt let down by Labor’s shire policy," Lee says. “Aboriginal people want to participate in decisions that affect them and not be sidelined from the process. That’s what super shires did. They shut out Aboriginal people and that’s why they voted for change."

Other local factors also played a role. The CLP for the first time chose strong indigenous candidates. Indeed, at the last election the CLP did not even bother fielding anyone in Arnhem.

Lee is the daughter of the former head of the Jawoyn Association, which represents one of the main tribal groups in the electorate. While her ALP opponent, Malarndirri McCarthy, the NT local government, tourism and indigenous affairs minister, was tied up in Darwin, Lee hit the road. Hers was the only poster on the polling station school in Numbulwar when the Weekend Financial Review visited.

It was clear during a day-long visit that the emergency intervention, renamed “Stronger Futures", was bringing money to remote communities, even if it was not winning votes for the ALP.

The federal government and the Northern Territory are spending about $1.7 billion over four years to try to improve Aboriginal housing in the territory, building about 4000 houses in about 70 communities.

Less overcrowding is supposed to reduce the risk of child and sexual abuse and make it easier for kids to study. And to give women and children privacy, the houses in Numbulwar are specially designed so bathroom doors are fitted with locks and not visible from the main living rooms.

The plan for 40 new houses and about 60 refurbished houses at Numbulwar is also an attempt to encourage jobs, as well as welfare.

The contractor New Future Alliance, a joint venture dominated by Leighton Holdings, is obliged to employ local indigenous staff and train local staff.

Mirniyowan is one of 13 locals being trained by non-indigenous “mentor supervisors" to hang doors, patch floors and fit louvre windows. Leighton staff are also demanding first-world occupational health and safety standards, so workers wear high visibility vests and hard hats, while next door children run barefoot in the red sand with camp dogs.

For those who complain that indigenous people will just wreck houses, the program aims to change the tenancy rules. The NT government has acquired long-term leases over the properties and it can now evict bad tenants.

Under a canopy that serves as the community meeting space, Sheila Nunggumajbarr explained how she hoped it would work. She is on a committee of locals that confers with the Leighton team on managing the scheme.

“We had a meeting and they explained to us. If people break houses and smash doors they have to pay," she says.

She is soon to move into a new six-bedroom, two-storey house. Her family of 13 now lives in a three-bedroom house with holes in the floor, the toilet and on the verandah.

The biggest problem is when people come to stay for funerals (“sorry business") or other cultural business, which happens all the time.

“When you put other people in your house, they start to break houses. My kids don’t do violence," Nunggumajbarr says. Now, when that happens, she can ring the police and they will take the offenders out of the house.

Chatting at lunch in the portable canteen set up by Leighton for its workers, Mirniyowan and a work mate Conrad Murrungun endorsed most of the changes since the intervention.

Neither of them had any problems with the basics card or the penalties for people who didn’t send their kids to school.

“It’s so the kids can have a better future," Murrungun says, adding that it has encouraged him to buy mattresses and clothes for his children.

While there is a lot of talk of mutual obligation down south, the two young men are hoping for some benefits, too.

They said they voted CLP because Lee had promised to improve the road, which is impassable during the wet season. It takes about five hours to get to a sealed road.

Mirniyowan says Lee won his vote by promising money for outstations, which would allow Numbulwar residents to spend more time in their traditional lands 50 or more kilometres away. “The [ALP] government doesn’t help people set up house in the bush."

Mirniyowan criticised the super shires on the grounds that decisions affecting Numbulwar were often taken by a board where other communities from different language and kin groups had a majority. “All these guys come in from Ngukurr, Burunga, Robinson River and take over all these jobs," he says.

Inter-group politics affect the building project at Numburwal, too. The community was formed as a mission for people scattered all over the Gulf country and the land under the town is actually owned by traditional owners who live elsewhere.

They have refused to allow the town of “blow-ins" to expand to accommodate extra houses. That is why, in the middle of one of the emptiest deserts in the world, the houses have to be two storeys and squeezed on to tiny blocks.

Another big question is what happens after the building project is completed.

Both men are fairly keen to look for more work. Mirniyowan says he would move to Katherine or to mine work even though he admits it might be hard to leave Numburwal. “I will take my family," he says.

But there are lots of pressures not to cut ties with the community. Mirniyowan’s mother, Hilda Ngalmi, joined Nunggumajbarr under the canopy after finishing her shift as a teachers’ aide at the local school where she teaches Wubuy, the dwindling local Aboriginal language.

She supports Mirniyowan in looking for work and wants him to move on to an apprenticeship but says he must still return for ceremonies and sorry business. “It will be hard to travel back."

She was perhaps the most angry about the Roper Gulf super shire, which she sees as a threat to her local identity.

“There are white fella things and black fella things and it will never change," Ngalmi said.